


Experiments and Observations

by caveyoja



Series: The Family You Choose [7]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 11:59:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15706788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caveyoja/pseuds/caveyoja
Summary: Gert and Chase move forward in their relationship.  Later, when Chase and Gert finish the detector to look for tracking devices, the results are worse than they expected.





	Experiments and Observations

“They’re back!” Karolina called from the reception area back to Alex in the kitchen. He’d been relegated there by Nico after the third time he’d complained about them being late. Or, it might have been the fifth time - he’d been drinking what was probably too much coffee, even for him, and had lost count. The problem was it was so much easier being out on the missions than waiting for them to come back, and he knew he’d gotten on Nico’s last nerve with his complaints. So, when she had somewhat less than tactfully suggested he get his ass into the kitchen and stop hovering, he’d wisely agreed.

He got to the front drive as the van pulled up. Gert got out of the van and stretched. “Sorry we’re late, but we gassed up at that last station on the way up – including the extra cans.”

Chase walked around to stand next to Gert, taking her hand when he was next to her, “And we got everything on the list. I can start on the detectors tomorrow.” Alex raised an eyebrow and looked more closely – their body language was a little off – glancing at each other almost shyly, starting to move closer to each other then backing away. Almost like they’d had a fight, or….

Oh. Or that. Honestly, it was about damn time they did that. He was getting tired of walking in on them NOT doing anything when it was obvious they both wanted to but were scared of...well, who the fuck knew why they hadn’t yet. He really didn’t want any more details than they had already, he just wanted them to take it to their room and move the UST away from where he had to be a witness to it.

Molly stumbled past them, yawning and clutching a book. As she opened the door to head back to her room and sleep, Lace rushed past her and headed straight for Gert. “Hello, baby,” she cooed, hugging the dinosaur. She then turned back to the van and pulled out a bag, “I got you a treat, Lace!” She took a few steps away from the car and unwrapped a rotisserie chicken, throwing it into the air for the dinosaur. The dinosaur leaped after it, catching it in mid-air and crunching it down.

Gert smiled and then looked over to Chase, biting her lip and raising an eyebrow. Chase stared at her briefly, swallowed, and then smiled back. “So…,” Chase started, rubbing his hands together and turning to Alex, “We’re both kind of tired, and we’re just going to get to bed – you guys ok unpacking the van?”

Alex looked at Chase, then Gert, and wondered if they seriously thought they were fooling anyone. “No problem,” he shrugged, “We’ll -” he stopped as they both hurried into the motel without a backward glance. “….take care of it,” he finished, folding his arms and watching the empty spot where they had been.

Karo and Nico walked up and stood on either side of him. Nico tilted her head back and exclaimed “Thank fuck for that! I thought they’d never get on with it!”

Alex sighed and pulled out his phone to check the calendar. “Who had eleven weeks?”

Karo raised her hand excitedly, “I had ten to twelve!”

“You win the pool then – I stashed it in the closet in the back office.”

Karo smiled, and put her hand on Nico’s arm, “Mind if I go grab it?”

“Nah – we’ve got this. Just save me something dark chocolate, Lini.”

Alex turned to Nico as Karo left and grinned, “Lini?”

Nico couldn’t keep the smile off her face, but tried to look stern as she warned, “Shut up.”

 

If he just didn’t look at her before they got to the room he might be able to make it there without pushing her up against a wall and ripping her clothes off. Because spending two hours trying to keep his hands off of her after just barely starting things at the market had gotten him to the point where he really didn’t care where they were or who might see them. He kept sneaking looks at her on the drive up, and his mind kept going back to the dance, and he was amazed he hadn’t driven them off a ledge. 

At first, he’d been able to share a bed with her without going there because of her nightmares. But, once they’d gotten her meds, his PTSD or whatever it was had kicked in, and it hadn’t seemed right to be with her when he was working so hard to keep a lid on being angry all the time. Since they’d started talking about his Dad, that had gotten so much better, but – after today…. 

After spending the day with her without her anxiety or his PTSD kicking in, almost like they were normal people out in the open, and then ending it with that kiss, where she had definitely been kissing him back? If she didn’t want to go any farther, there’d be a whole lot of cold showers in his future.

Although, judging by the raised eyebrow a couple of minutes before and the speed she was walking down the corridor to their room, he got the feeling Gert was on the same page. They got to the door, and he looked at her as he reached for the doorknob. She took the initiative, surprising him as she reached up and pulled him down for a searing kiss that made him sure she wanted this as much as he did. He wrapped one arm around her and blindly flailed at the doorknob because if they didn’t get into that room pretty damn soon then Alex would come up with a whole new category of rules.

He wasn’t sure how, but he got the door opened, and stumbled into the room. Her legs had wrapped around his waist at some point, and he carried her in, slamming the door behind them and falling onto the bed on his back, leaving her straddling him. She planted her arms on the bed on either side of his head and lifted herself up enough to look down at him. “So, “ she panted, “You ok with this?”

“God, yes!” he groaned, moving his arms down to her ass, and tested out moving his hips up to grind into her. He watched as she closed her eyes and bit down on her lip, moaning softly.

She opened her eyes and her smile became almost predatory. “Too many clothes,” she complained, reaching for the hem of his t-shirt. He sat up enough for her to pull it off of him, and reached for her shirt. She leaned back, stretching up her arms as he slid it up, tossing it behind her when she was free from it. He leaned forward, nuzzling her breasts as he reached around to undo her bra, fumbling with the hooks for a few seconds before he was able to unfasten it. She shrugged her shoulders free of the straps and flung it behind her. He vaguely noticed the bra draped over a lamp before his attention was fully captured by the sight in front of him.

When they’d had sex at the dance it had been rushed and frantic, and he hadn’t gotten any kind of a chance to really appreciate how gorgeous she was. He brought his hands up to cup her breasts, and began kissing them, sucking on one nipple while he stroked the other breast softly. She wrapped her arms around his head and pulled him closer, grinding her hips down on him. He froze in place and closed his eyes, forcing himself to slow down, because if he didn’t this would be over way too fast.

When he opened his eyes again, Gert was looking down at him, a pleased smirk on her face. She knew exactly the effect she was having on him – and he’d bet she had known for the whole long drive up here. And she was enjoying it. He smiled back, “Oh yeah?” 

She batted her eyes at him, faking innocence, “I have no idea - “

Chase quickly wrapped his arms around her, sliding them down to her ass, and he heard her shriek with laughter as he spun her around so that he was now on top of her. Chase looked into her eyes, seeing her happy and laughing, and he wanted to burn that into his brain because – that right there? That was his world. 

She saw him looking at her, and self-consciously looked down, breaking eye contact. He reached for her chin, tilting it up, and made eye-contact with her, smiling as he leaned in and kissed her. She eagerly kissed him back, one hand tangling in his hair as the other ran down his back. He started kissing her neck, and she arched her back, moaning softly as he moved further down, past her breasts, pressing soft kisses to her stomach, and then pausing at her jeans. “Is this ok?” he asked.

She looked down at him, eyes slightly glazed and nodded. He unzipped her jeans, sliding them and her panties down her legs, and then kissed his way back up her legs, across her inner thighs, and looked up at her again. This was new to him, but god – he wanted to, and he wanted her to tell him exactly what was good for her. “I...um...haven’t done this before – so you tell me what’s good?”

“You don’t have to,” she whispered hoarsely.

“No – but I want to. Ok?” She nodded, and he kept eye contact with her as he kissed the inside of one thigh, then the other, and then spread her open with his hand and ran his tongue over her. She closed her eyes and sighed. “Good?” he asked. 

“Mm-hm,” he nodded, her eyes half closed. He watched her reactions as he lapped at her and stopped when he found the spot that made her gasp and ball her hands into fists. “God – Chase – yes!,” she panted out, “Right there!”

He slipped a finger inside her, coating it in her moisture, and rubbed it there, massaging the spot with one hand while he moved further down, exploring her and watching her every reaction, cataloging it for later – because he really wanted to do this again. He slipped his tongue inside her and then moved back to her center and sucked there, and felt her legs tense up around him. “Good?” he asked again.

Her reply was a barely choked out sound he interpreted as a yes, and he continued massaging her with one hand while he licked and sucked and lapped at her, reveling in the sounds she made. Her legs tensed up again, nearly wrapping around his head, followed by a breathless gasp. She relaxed beneath him, and he looked back up at her adoringly.

 

Her heart was racing and she could barely catch her breath. He may have never gone down on a girl before, but damn if he wasn’t good at it. She looked down at him, and knowing him, he’d be willing to spend hours doing that to her over and over again. But, as amazing as that had been – she wanted to do the same for him. 

She reached down, and pulled him up, rolling over so she was back on top again, and stretched herself over him. She kissed him deeply, running her tongue over his lips, and then into his mouth, tasting herself on him. He reached over to the nightstand for a condom, but she grabbed his hand and brought it to her mouth, sucking on his fingers, watching his eyes go wide at the sight. She shook her head and smirked at him, “My turn.”

His breath began to speed up as she started kissing her way down, his body, stopping to lap at his nipples, and his abs, and then stopping at the top of his jeans. “OK?” she asked.

He propped himself up on his elbows so he could see her better, “You don’t have to.”

She kept eye contact with him, “No, but I want to.” He stared at her for a moment longer before nodding slowly. Without breaking eye contact, she unfastened his jeans and slid them and his underwear down his legs. She had done this before, with someone else, but then it was an excuse – a way to get out of sex she really wasn’t into – and she knew that was all kinds of wrong back then, but this was so different. This was him, and this was them, and they’d both waited on being together like this for such a long time.

She broke eye contact, wrapped one hand around him, and licked at his tip, looking back up at him as he closed his eyes and groaned, leaning his head back. She slid her hand down and wrapped her mouth around him, slowly building into a rhythm with her mouth and her hand. She was pretty sure she heard him whimper as he began to thrust his hips up when she reached out with her other hand to softly caress his balls.

She slowed down, and looked at his face again – his eyes were glazed over, and he was breathing heavily. She started to move faster, but he shook his head, and reached for her shoulders, pulling her back up. “I want to be inside you,” he whispered hoarsely.

She nodded - she wanted that too – so much more now than even the first time they were together. He reached over to the nightstand blindly, trying to find a condom, and knocked over their clock. Gert chuckled as it clattered to the floor and he huffed in frustration. She leaned over him, deliberately placing her breasts in front of his face, and she paused as he took one into his mouth, sucking on the nipple. She ground her hips forward, and heard him groan as he pulled her closer. They were both so close – and she needed to get that damn condom right fucking now. She leaned forward and grabbed for the box, pulling one out and tearing the wrapper open with her teeth. She pulled away from him and he whined briefly until she rolled the condom onto him, making him groan again. He reached out greedily, grabbing her by the hips and pulling her back on top of him. She guided him in to her, sinking down onto him slowly until he was buried in her. 

She leaned forward, holding herself up with her hands on his shoulders, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, suckling at her breasts as he let her set the pace. She moved her hips back slowly, until he was barely at her entrance, and then quickly forward until he was buried in her again, building into a rhythm that had them both gasping for air. He leaned forward, his hands moving down to her ass and began thrusting into her, matching her movements. She wrapped her arms around his neck, throwing her head back as he sucked on her nipples. He moved one hand down between them, back to the spot he’d found before, and began stroking her. Gert choked back a scream as she came again, and then watched his face as his thrusts became more frantic and he tightened his grip on her, finally closing his eyes as he came, gasping out her name.

They held each other, still joined together, their heart rates and breathing slowing. Chase felt Gert shiver, and realized just how cold the room was. He laid back down on the bed and pulled the blankets up over them both. He slipped off the condom and quickly leaned over to throw it away before settling back with Gert draped across him, her head nestled in the crook of his neck. “I love you,” he whispered, unable to keep a smile off his face.

Gert rolled on top of him, resting her chin on her hands and looking up at him, smiling back, “I love you too.”

He tangled his fingers in her hair and bent his head down to kiss her, and then they both settled back. Chase pulled the covers higher up to cover her. They were both sated and warm and happy and he wondered how long they could get away with staying exactly this way before something dragged them out of bed. It wasn’t like they had school or jobs or anything – just the damn detector that Alex wanted him to build. 

He smiled as the thought occurred to him – who said Gert couldn’t help? “Hey – I need to work on that detector tomorrow – but I really don’t want to let you go. So – spend the day with me in the lab?”

She tilted her head and looked at him skeptically, “I wouldn’t get in the way?”

Chase laughed, “Are you kidding? After tonight, if you’re not there, all I’m going to be doing is thinking about you. So, I’ll actually work faster if you’re there.”

Gert chuckled, “And, we won’t get distracted?”

Chase shrugged, hugging her tighter, “I was going to be distracted anyway.”

 

Alex gulped down the last of his coffee and rubbed his eyes. They’d finished packing up this morning, and were just waiting on Chase and Gert to get done with the detector, which was running a couple of days later than originally anticipated. Of course, that probably had a lot to do with the fact that Gert was helping Chase, and, while he was rooting for them as much as anybody, her helping seemed result in a lot of unscheduled breaks. He’d learned to knock very loudly and wait to be told it was ok to come in because walking in on them once was more than enough. Chase had apologized, but Gert had just smirked at him and reminded him that his PDA rules applied to common areas, and Chase’s lab was behind a closed door that he had intentionally opened. He had wisely not pointed out that what he’d walked in on was a hell of a lot more than a PDA.

So, he waited. He didn’t even have the laptop, because Molly had appropriated it to write some fan-fiction. He’d read what she was working on the last time he’d wrestled the computer away from her - and she was good. She’d converted him to a Neville and Luna shipper, but he’d be damned if he told her that. He was also kind of dreading when she started in on the smut because reading smut was one thing. Reading smut you knew was written by a 14 year old girl that was like your little sister? No. Just….no.

Since his laptop was currently in Molly’s custody, he was spending his time re-reading the series, trading books with Nico and Karo who were doing the same. Last night, after Chase and Gert had turned in early after a hard day’s “work” - and they still weren’t fooling anyone – the rest of them had gotten into a debate about which house they’d be sorted in to. They’d decided that Molly was definitely Gryffindor, he was Ravenclaw, Karo was Hufflepuff, Chase was somewhere between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Nico was Slytherin, and Gert was either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, with Molly casting the decisive vote for Slytherin by pointing out that her connection to Lace was close enough to Parseltongue to qualify.

He took a look at the book in his hand – Half Blood Prince – he’d be done with it in another hour or so, which meant hunting down Nico and trying to pry Deathly Hallows out of her hands. Which also meant probably walking in on another PDA. Hopefully less graphic than Gert and Chase had been. Because, as much as he loved his friends, he was very happy with being an uninvolved fifth wheel. Or maybe Molly was the fifth wheel, and he was the sixth.

He knew the others probably didn’t believe that he was ok with the situation, but he really was. Amy’s death had broken something in him, and the only time he’d ever been interested in a girl had been Nico – and even then, he’d been thinking of Amy. 

“You ok?”

Alex looked up to see Gert and Chase looking at him with concern. “Sorry, just thinking,” he brushed off the question. “What’s up?”

Chase shrugged, with a slight, self-satisfied smile. “It’s ready.”

“Took a bit longer than you thought,” Alex commented with a raised eyebrow, because if you couldn’t tease your friends, who else would do it?

Chase blushed and looked down, but Gert crossed her arms and rested her weight on one leg, “Needed a little...” she paused and smirked, “fine tuning,” she said in a breathy voice. Chase tried – and failed – to suppress a laugh.

Alex threw up his hands in surrender. “Really don’t want the details.” He nodded over toward the wing they’d taken over for their bedrooms, “I’ll tell the others.” As he headed toward the hall, he glanced back and saw them making out again. “Hey!” he shouted, “No PDAs in common areas!” His warning didn’t stop them, but he was pretty sure he’d been heard as he saw Gert flip him off. He shook his head and smiled – he’d need to bring Molly back as his chaperon as that was about the only thing that would stop those two at this point.

 

The room Chase had taken over as a lab was in the wing of the motel they hadn’t used as their rooms. They had taken all the furniture out and moved in a couple of tables from the kitchen and a desk from the office. Molly poked her head into the bathroom and saw the tub lined with a heavy foil, with a few wires attached to it that went through a hole drilled in the wall back into the bedroom. “Tin foil?” she asked skeptically.

Gert glanced at Chase and saw he was focused on one of the boxes on the table. “It provides more surface area and just enough amplification for the detector to pick up low levels of energy.” 

Molly stared at her blankly, “Since when were you into science?”

Gert raised an eyebrow, “Since I had someone explain it to me in a way that made sense.”

“Speaking of explanations – what do we do?” Alex asked.

Gert put a hand on Chase’s shoulder, and he looked up distractedly. “Showtime, babe,” she prompted.

He nodded and looked around the room with a smile. “So, if there’s a tracker, it’s emitting energy of some sort – radiation, electromagnetic waves – something.” He saw everyone nod along and gestured to the bathroom. “We lined the tub with heavy foil – it’s not enough to block whatever energy there is, but it is enough to see what kind of energy it is and pinpoint where it’s coming from.” 

He nodded to Gert, who led Lace into the bathroom and got her into the tub, sliding a heavy, foil lined curtain closed behind her. She nodded to Chase, who flipped a switch, lighting up the array of dials in front of him. He pointed at one dial that had a higher reading than the others. “7!” he called out to Gert.

Gert poked her head in the shower and shouted back, “Right hip!” and then led Lace back into the room. Chase got up and took out a short metal pipe that was connected by a wire to a speaker, which made clicking noises. He passed it over Lace, and as the pipe got near her right leg the clicking began to get faster, until he pinpointed the spot where her tracker was.

“Any way we can turn that off?” Nico asked.

“Maybe not turn it off, but we can jam it,” Chase said, putting the pipe back and writing some numbers down on a pad next to the dials. “That used a radio frequency, and we just need to build a radio transmitter to block the frequency it’s using.” He folded his arms and looked at the group, “So – who’s next? Gert and I already tested it out and we were clean.”

Molly snickered, and muttered, “Yeah, I’ll bet.” Gert’s mouth dropped open and she smacked Molly’s arm, but Molly continued to chuckle.

Alex raised his hand, “I’ll go. What do I do – just get in the tub and pull the curtain?”

“Yep,” Gert answered. “Give a shout when you’re there, and Chase will run the test.” Alex started toward that bathroom, and Gert quickly added, “Oh – and leave your phone.”

Alex nodded, handing his phone to Molly as he passed, and got into the tub for the test. He was clean, as was Nico after him. Karo went next, and both Chase and Gert frowned when the readings didn’t budge. “The bracelet?” Gert asked.

Chase snapped his fingers and nodded, calling out, “Karo – take off your bracelet!” There was a muffled acknowledgement followed by all the dials spiking. “So, as long as she’s wearing her bracelet, they won’t be able to track her.”

“And if she takes it off?” Nico asked, giving Karo a hug as she rejoined them.

Chase shrugged, “She’s a wide-spectrum, high-energy transmitter without the bracelet. Just about any tracker would pick her up.”

“Great,” Karo frowned, crossing her arms as Nico ran a soothing arm along her back.

“Molly – you’re next,” Gert announced. 

“I don’t have a tracker,” she shook her head and let out a bored sigh as she handed her phone to Gert and headed into the bathroom.

Chase flipped the switch on and his eyes widened as the dials spiked again. He glanced to the dials at the far end of the table – the radiation detectors that hadn’t budged even for Karo – but they were spiking now. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Karo – can you give Molly your bracelet?” he asked nervously.

Karo looked at him suspiciously, but headed into the bathroom and handed it to Molly through the curtain. The electromagnetic waves died down, just as they had for Karo, but the radiation meters didn’t budge. He grimaced, closing his eyes, and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. 

Gert looked at him with concern, and then glanced over his shoulders at the dials, freezing as she saw the radiation readings. Chase had explained the different types of energy to her as they were building the detectors, and he had said they probably didn’t need the radiation detector, because he didn’t think their parents would have put them in danger of radiation poisoning. But – just in case the parents were worse than he thought – he wanted to look for that as well, so they could get rid of it and limit whatever exposure they’d already had. 

From the way the sensors all around Molly were triggering, the radiation wasn’t coming from a tracker they could remove. It was from Molly herself. Her eyes widened as that realization hit her, and she hoped Chase would tell her she was mistaken. “Chase?” she asked.

He reached out and grabbed her hand, looking her in the eyes, “I’m sorry, babe.”

Molly and Karo came out of the bathroom, and Molly looked at them quizzically. “Sorry about what?”

Gert sniffed, and squeezed Chase’s hand before letting it go, brushing away a tear, and walking over to Molly. “Your readings are sort of like Karo’s, Molls.”

Molly narrowed her eyes, not understanding the problem, “So – Chase makes me a bracelet like hers, then, right?”

Chase walked up and put a hand on her upper arm, squeezing it, “Sort of like hers, but different. You’re also giving off high levels of alpha and beta particles, and low levels of gamma.”

Molly stared at him, beginning to get scared, “What the fuck does that mean? Gamma rays are like radiation, right?”

Chase nodded, “Yeah – they are. But alpha and beta are pretty easy to block, and the gamma level is pretty low – too low to hurt anyone else.”

Molly’s eyes widened, “Anyone else?” She turned to Gert, her voice wavering, “So – does that mean that they could – what – give me cancer or something?”

Gert pulled her into a hug, and whispered into her ear, “What you can do is so special, Molly. This is part of that, and you’ve had it all your life and it hasn’t hurt you – so it won’t hurt you, ok?”

Molly pulled away, crying, and looked at the tears running down her sister’s face. “If I’m going to be ok, then why are you crying?”

“Because I’m scared,” Gert answered honestly.

Molly backed away, shaking her head. “I...I need to think,” she choked out, running out of the room. 

Gert nodded, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. “Stay with her, girl,” she ordered, and Lace ran out of the room, tracking Molly. 

Chase wrapped his arms around Gert, kissing the top of her head. Karo and Nico brushed their hands past Gert’s arm as they left the room, both muttering how sorry they were. Alex watched them for a moment, locking eyes with Chase as he looked up. Alex raised an eyebrow, hoping for a nod that would tell him it wasn’t that bad – that Molly being exposed to radiation for pretty much her entire life wasn’t the death sentence he thought. Chase frowned, and shook his head in answer, and then turned his attention back to Gert.

Alex closed his eyes and let his breath out. Fate just fucking hated them that much, didn’t she? First she murdered Amy, and now she handed this to Molly. He shook his head, closing the door behind him as he went to find his laptop so he could try to do some research to see what they were up against.


End file.
